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Thomas Kovach
:Source: Harvested on May 17, 2006 from the campaign site, http://www.kovachforcongress.com/. =On the issues= As a citizen, it is your right to know about the issues that Tom stands for, before deciding whether to vote for him. If you have a question about an issue that you do not see listed, please contact us, and we'll let you know where he stands (and update the website with the issue you propose!). We know that every issue is complicated, so we have created individual pages below to give you a better feel for each one. While we can't answer where Tom would land on every detail of every issue, we have provided enough content for you to get a good sense of his outlook on governing issues facing this country, and how he will apply this outlook to his service in Congress. Budget Priorities Budget priorities: Help the poor, help the middle class! Did you know? :20% of our budget currently goes toward defense spending. :7% of our budget goes toward interest on the debt. :The National Debt is rapidly approaching $9,000,000,000,000.00. (How many zeroes is that?) The Undemocratic and Inhumane Influence of Super-Concentrated Wealth If you look at today’s world, you can see that people with influence, that the people with control over events, are those with wealth. Wealth buys so many advantages that we tend to forget them. Good money buys good education, good physicians (on demand), good medicine on demand, homes, clothing, transportation, mental health care (on demand), the ability to provide for as many or few children as one wants, and entertainment. Good money and the status it provides sometimes also buy people: friends, trophy spouses, lawyers…and politicians. We can all recognize the importance of capitalism in today’s society, but we also recognize the need for capitalism to have reasonable restrictions, so that the rich can’t manipulate the free market, so that the government can “promote the general Welfare” and “provide for the common defence” for everyone. These great ideas come from the Constitution, and we recognize their value. And as America has matured, we agree on the importance of giving everyone a fair chance of making their dreams come true, and the need to reward those who have built our country with a happy and healthy retirement. To these ends, our government has progressively set up high-profile systems throughout our history: universal education and child labor laws (so the poor aren’t forced to work through their childhood, and so they have a chance to improve their lives with higher-income jobs), union protections, workplace standards, and public health and mental health facilities (so as adults they may continue to work toward a better America), and Social Security and Medicare (so our elders may enjoy the fruits of their labors to the end of their days). Some simpler, cheaper, but less-visible programs to help the poor, like home heating oil assistance and financial aid for students, have also served to bring fairness to our great country. The Republican Congress has been quietly but strategically weakening these structures this country. Electing Tom Kovach will help end their rule and the rule of their special interests! Tom wants to help the poor and middle class! Ending Poverty: We need to face facts: poverty has been on the rise in the last four years, a fact that, sadly, is nonetheless challenged in today’s conservative media. Also, the last four years have seen something else for the first time in a very long time: Republican control of all three branches of government. We need to face poverty, both domestically and in the world, as wrong, and in violation of human dignity and rights. Our values, given to us by our spiritual mentors and quietly spoken in our hearts, tell us that the wisest among us have decried poverty in ancient and modern lands. We will stand up to those shrill voices who say that ending poverty will only take away everyone’s wealth. That is a false choice given to us by those with money and influence to buy media time. The truth is, fighting poverty is usually best done through innovative and cheap solutions, like providing universal healthcare and higher education, and increasing the minimum wage. He will pay for these programs by requiring the wealthiest Americans to sacrifice a fairer share of their government-assisted gains and moving America away from the totally wasteful and unnecessary Cold War military spending of the last 50 years. Healthcare Q & A: Q: Why shouldn’t healthcare be handled by the free market? I thought everything worked better through the market. A: A lot of people with a good understanding in economics make a mistake in thinking that everything works faster, better, and cheaper under a free market system. While that is true of a lot of things, it’s not true of things that people need and of which they have inexpert knowledge and information. Healthcare fits both criteria. Q: But isn’t healthcare more expensive through a big, government-run system? A: The truth is that healthcare is cheaper when it’s given to everyone through the government systems than through HMOs (now that’s something that HMO advertisements don’t want you to remember!). Medicare administrative costs are two percent of the plan, but under HMOs they average 11 percent. Administrative costs for healthcare in the United States are triple what they are in Canada, something to think about when talking about government inefficiency and waste. Q: Won’t this just cripple businesses with a lot of taxes? A: It doesn’t have to. It’s important to remember that there are a lot of hidden costs to not providing universal healthcare. Small businesses who pay to cover most of their employees’ healthcare lose out to the selfish Wal-Marts that provide far less healthcare than the national average. That just punishes companies who help their workers and sends the message to corporate America to be as greedy as possible and to send their workers to free public health clinics. Universal healthcare eliminates any gigantic company’s ability to cheat the system. Q: But overall, won’t providing universal healthcare be more expensive? A: No! Some estimates have it that if the United States spent the same amount of money in a universal healthcare system, it would get three times the healthcare. It’s important to remember that in a lot of ways we are providing universal healthcare already. Hospitals don’t turn away patients based on the ability to pay; when this happens, people wind up using healthcare at the worst (morally and financially) time: when they are sickest and need treatment, instead of when they’re healthy and need vaccinations or other preventative care. Universal healthcare can front-load costs and “stitch in time” more expensive and painful outcomes. Q: So, you really think universal healthcare will pay for itself? A: This isn’t a bold claim: we absolutely know it will. Universal Education and Higher Minimum Wage: It’s been obvious for some time that higher education leads most people to higher-paying jobs. Tom Kovach believes we need to move away from government loans and towards reaping the benefits of higher income. A 1- or 2% payroll deduction from people who take college classes at the government expense will pay for the program, especially if you raise the minimum wage, which tends to increase wages in the higher-paying, entry-level jobs that graduates tend to take. National Defense: Tom Kovach is a veteran and he supports our troops. Our troops deserve a big pay raise, but as importantly, so do our Veterans Affairs administrations and hospitals. Our military should not be billing its troops for Humvee damage. The Pentagon needs to respect mental illness like PTSD, caused by the trauma of war, and provide better disability pay for our brave soldiers. Our troops need our government to understand that our troops don’t need missile defense, they need Humvee defense. They need practical defense, like good homes and better pay. We can’t afford to cut spending on foodstamps while spending billions on Cold-War technology like nuclear submarines and missile defense systems and billions more on unfair, fraudulent, and no-bid defense contracts. We have spent more on Iraq, a country that did not attack us, than anywhere near what we’ve spent on Katrina, a hurricane that most certainly did: this is wrong. Tom Kovach believes we can provide a better standard of living for our troops while still reducing overall military spending to 10% of the national budget. Taxes: It is wrong to push higher taxes from wealthy individuals and big corporations to poor and middle class individuals. Tom Kovach supports every effort to correct this, including better audits on the highest 1% of income earners, progressively increasing capital gains taxes on profits of over $1 million, repealing all of the Republican tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans, and creating new federal tax brackets for households that earn over $10,000,000 and $100,000,000: 45% and 55%, respectively. That leaves $5.5 million for the really rich and $45 million for the super-rich each year: not bad! The Economy We're told over and over that America's economy is recovering, but the truth is that life for most people hasn’t gotten any better. While health care costs explode, people feel lucky just to get Wal-Mart jobs. We can do better. What is Tom’s philosophy in getting it done? Tom believes that government should make investments in people that the market will not. Everyone can benefit financially from good government: it's a false choice to think otherwise! Raise (not “raze”) the Minimum Wage: Let’s face it: you can’t get by in this country on $5.15 an hour. The American dream has turned into the American joke. Let’s give hardworking people a real chance to get ahead! Think of the money people earn at work like a footrace. High-income people, who aren’t always more productive, are like people given a head start in the race. People who are given a head start aren’t always faster, but they’re guaranteed a good finish. Low-income workers, who are often quite productive, are like people who have to start way behind. They aren’t always slower, but often lose hope and give up the race. That’s one reason why people quit low-paying jobs so easily. Now, imagine if we had everyone start the race at the same starting line: everyone gives more of themselves to the race! Likewise, giving everyone fairer pay makes everyone take pride in what they do, and a sense that they can make it. More importantly, America becomes more productive. Tom Kovach has a bold agenda: reward every working American’s efforts with at least $10 an hour. It’s time we stop insulting ourselves: we Americans aren’t lazy, we’re hardworking and proud! All we need is a fair shake and things can start to happen for ourselves and our children. Fair Trade: If a country does business with America, they need to pay their workers a minimum wage comparable to our own, period. Without this requirement, good American jobs are sacrificed to shoddy goods made on the backs of the foreign poor. Tom also thinks this would solve the problem of illegal immigration. If Mexico’s minimum wage and health benefits were anywhere near our own, we wouldn’t have an immigration “crisis” in this country. Small business: Small business is the heart of the American economy: two-thirds of our jobs come from small businesses. Tom Kovach understands how hard it is to make a business work. When you fall on hard times, it takes more than hard work, smart thinking and a great staff. Sometimes it takes luck, but we can’t all be lucky all the time. And when things go wrong, we don’t want charity, we just need a little help. The fair small business loan We all know that good business sense starts with flexibility: government loans should be flexible, too! Tom Kovach’s plan is simple, but long overdue. He wants to give small business easier access to government loans, and make them smarter. If you miss a payment on a small business loan, the missed payment just gets rolled back to the end of the loan: no interest, no penalties. Of course you can’t stiff Uncle Sam and do that forever, but you can miss up to three payments, which is a better deal than you’ll get from any bank. Community Homesteads: Expanding state homestead exemptions by leveraging the power of federal block grant programs. Local communities need sound plans that fit their needs, not giant corporations that engage in scorched-earth financial warfare. Small businesses, and the people in the jobs they create, deserve a stronger voice in the communities they built. Sadly, local politicians in hard-hit areas are all too often tempted by dreams of quick money from billionaire retailers, sports team owners, and whoever else gets access. Those shady characters beg for outrageous loans, grants, and tax breaks in return for local taxes on their profits. But here’s the familiar ending to that story: in five years, hometown businesses go out of business. Good-paying jobs go bust with them. And the Acme chain doesn’t turn the profit it promised, so the town doesn’t get the extra revenue. Hasn’t our area seen that enough? Tom Kovach will keep that from happening again by taking us back to basics. Small businesses build their communities, and when local politicians won’t reward them for their time and effort, they deserve legal protections. States already have such laws on the books in the form of homestead exemptions. These exemptions should cut small businesses a break from their taxes for the service they do for the community. And when family businesses are given homestead exemptions, it prevents corrupt authorities from shameless land-grabs through eminent domain. Tom Kovach would leverage the power of federal block grants to states to require them to enforce their own homestead exemptions. Who doesn’t want a state to enforce its own laws? We all do, as long as they’re prudent, and homestead exemptions protect local jobs, local businesses, and the local economy: there’s nothing more sensible. But he won’t stop there. As Congressman, Tom Kovach will give local businesses greater say by creating Community Business Consortiums (CBCs) through further federal incentives. Like Homeowner’s Associations, these consortiums will have a greater say in community planning and development; unlike some Homeowner’s Associations, CBCs will have reasonable limits to prevent entrenched power from vetoing needed changes. These limits will be federally mandated, but each state can decide how to implement them. It’s not a government program, and it doesn’t make states build a new program. It’s just holding states to the promise they already made to you. Greater local control coming from smarter federal policy: the longer you think about it, the more it makes sense, and the more sense it makes for you. Vote for Tom Kovach and make it happen! Taxes: It’s just common sense: our efforts say more about us than what we’re born into. If the government rewards work instead of wealth, we may not all become rich, but we’ll certainly do better than getting by. Tom Kovach wants fairness in our tax system, bringing back the common sense tax structure under Clinton. Tom supports: * Keeping the estate tax (with reasonable protections for small business and farm owners). Some in Congress support the “Paris Hilton Benefit” by trying to completely ending the estate tax. We know better. With Tom Kovach, we will fight to keep the aristocracy out of America. Lifting the income cap on Social Security taxes. If you earn less than $90,000 a year, you pay a 5.2% tax to Social Security. If you earn $20,000,000, you pay a 0.0234% tax to Social Security. That’s wrong: everyone should pay the same percentage to Social Security, since everyone’s entitled to it when they reach retirement age. Tom Kovach will work to make sure everyone plays by the same rules. Healthcare: One thing that big business has learned in the last few years is that it’s hard to compete when your competition has an advantage. And right now, the price that Corporate America has learned is that health care is a cost that eats into the bottom line of of companies that keep it, and gives the edge to the competition. The only real way to fix this is to offer some kind of universal health care, so that healthcare costs are evenly spread across the entire market. A lot of people get worried when thinking about turning our health care system into “the Canadian system,” or “the French system.” The truth is, we are at an advantage: we can pick the best parts of the many foreign health care systems for our own. But the current system is not working. Dollar for dollar, the American system buys a third as health care much as comparable universal systems from overseas. Medicare’s overhead costs are 2%: private insurance, with the profit incentive, has overhead of 30%: so much for “government inefficiency.” What kind of universal healthcare system would Tom want? Tom would start by letting you pick your own doctor. This pays for itself. Let’s say that right now, you’re “lucky” enough to have HMO health care. In order to see a specialist, you have to set an appointment with your primary care physician, then get a referral, then go to the specialist. The same goes for emergency room visits. With universal health care, these ridiculous steps are eliminated: you go to whomever you choose, you wind up making fewer appointments and wasting less of your time, the system’s time, and everyone’s money. Education: As with healthcare, the smartest way to improve the educational system for everyone is to make it accessible to all who want it. This means an adequate increase in federal spending at the primary and secondary school levels to increase the number of high school graduates and make them competitive in the global marketplace. At the postsecondary level, Tom’s plan is simply an interest free loan given to college students that will be paid back via a 1-2% payroll deduction. Not only will this pay for itself once the upfront investment has been made, in return the government (and Corporate America!) receives a better trained, more intelligent worker. This is commonsense stuff, the kind of thing we need more of in government. A Message to You about the Economy (too long to post) Our Economic Restoration Plan (too long to post) Gasoline Prices You’d have to be asleep for the last ten years to miss those skyrocketing prices at the pump. Some of you remember when gas was a dollar a gallon; some of you, with a little more gray hair than the rest of us, remember when gas was a quarter a gallon (that happened in 1950). Some people would have you believe that the problem is simple, but it’s far from it. We read mixed messages in the paper, and hear strange and contradictory stories on TV: "OPEC doesn’t produce enough oil," "We need to drill in Alaska for more oil," "We need to give tax breaks to oil companies so they’ll build more refineries!" But we need more than one-step proposals, and to find out what we should do, we need to look into the nature of the prices at the pump. On the supply side, lots of people would have you believe differently, but it looks like we’ve reached global peak oil production. That means that with each year, there will be less oil for the world to use. On the demand side, not only does the U.S. buy more oil each year, but so does China, India, and the rest of the developing world. Any Economics 101 class will teach you that when demand increases and supply stays the same, prices go up. And that’s the nature of the problem. Let’s talk a little more about the supply side: we need to think about why oil production has peaked. Some of us might think back to the 1970s, and want to blame it on an embargo, but looking at current events we can plainly see it’s not because of OPEC: that cartel has just about maxed out on their production levels. There’s just less oil to be found in easy-to-drill places. It’s easy to stop with the supply side here, and most people don’t go to the next step and talk about refining, which is to say, turning crude oil into gasoline. There’s a reason for that, and it’s that oil companies would just as soon not have it discussed. We might catch bits of information from the media, that fewer oil refineries being built in the United States in recent years: there are half as many refineries in the U.S. than in 1982. Why this is so is rarely investigated? The history of the refinery shortage began with the Reagan "deregulation" of refineries in the 1980s. Oil companies, with their leashes taken off, purposely planned fewer refineries. With fewer refineries opened, gasoline production bottlenecks at the refining stage, which means gas is more expensive. Existing oil refineries, in turn, make money: hand over fist. Oil companies have even gone so far as to request more stringent environmental regulations, so as to make it more difficult for new refineries to open! This is troubling, and Tom Kovach will do two things to stop it: 1) He will use existing antitrust laws to prosecute oil companies that engage in collusion with their refineries, 2) he will create federal anti-price-gouging regulations that apply to oil prices, and 3) he will not let oil companies use the excuse of environmental regulations to prevent new refineries from opening; instead, he will reinstate the regulation of the oil and gasoline industries to force them to increase capacity. On the demand side, let’s face it: it’s almost impossible to do anything in this country without a personal vehicle, and all cars need gas. It doesn’t have to be that way. Over the long term, we can create a huge public transit system for the United States, including electric-powered bullet trains, light rail, and subways for every major city, that they already have in Europe and Japan. Tom Kovach wants to start building them right here in Pennsylvania; this will bring in more tourists from other states like Ohio, New York, and New Jersey, with zero gallons of gasoline required! In the shorter-term, we’d all love to have hybrid cars that got 30, 40, 50, even 60 miles to the gallon: can you imagine where gas prices would be today, if hybrids had been out 15 years ago? But right now, we know that hybrid cars are more expensive than the standard car, and that those Republicans in Congress have offered us a pittance to make the switch to the cars of the future. Obviously, they want to keep their oil companies happy. Tom Kovach wants bold solutions: he will work to vastly improve gas mileage standards on all new cars produced in the U.S., and will ease the pain by offering a sales-tax rebate to anyone who buys the most fuel-efficient cars. He will leverage federal highway dollars for the states to get it done. This is simply a government investment in our future, no more "wasteful" than a share of stock in a Fortune 500 Company. Immigration Policy Tom believes that our illegal immigration problem is a push-pull problem. Foreign countries push their citizens to come to the United States in order to earn U.S. wages. U.S. companies pull in illegal immigrants by paying them illegal wages. Right now, 50% of illegal immigrants come from Mexico, which encourages its nationals to move to the U.S. for its own economic gain. Some U.S. businesses enjoy the cheap labor and disobey the law. In order to combat this, we need to enforce our own laws on immigration (without regard to race, as the other 50% of illegal immigrants are not from Mexico), as well leverage our high levels of trade with Mexico in particular and other countries in general to get them to improve working conditions and to increase their minimum wage. Neither step alone will fix the long-term problem. Legal immigration needs to be limited and controlled, if for no other reason, so wages in this country will increase. When it comes to the number of H-1B visas, it's important to offer these only to people who are already outside of the United States, so that illegals are not rewarded for already being here. However, because creating new trade deals takes such a long time, and the very high, short-term demand to enter the country is fairly inflexible, it's wisest to increase the number of visas in the short run, then reduce it to a number that meets our actual economic needs for infrastructure, health care, technological development, etc. In other words, we need to improve our actual productivity, and not just increase businesses' bottom lines by allowing a flood of minimum-wage workers to enter the country. One major upside to following this plan is that we would demonstrate to illegals already in our country the upside (minimum wage, labor protections, etc.) of working with their country of origin and to become legal residents of the United States. Iraq in the Context of National Security Here are ten interesting facts about Iraq: 1. The number of attacks on American soldiers is at its highest rate since the war began: Congressman Murphy has some personal experience with the effects of that. 2. We have known for over a year that $9 billion from the Coalition Provisional Authority cannot be accounted for, according to the Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. Congress has not held one hearing on this, and Congressman Murphy has not called for one hearing on it. 3. The primary bases for the war, Iraqi Chemical, Nuclear, and Biological Weapons, have been shown to be completely false. 4. Iraq was to pay for its own reconstruction through oil revenues, according to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his then-deputy, Paul Wolfowitz. 5. Despite insisting that Democrats want to leave Iraq prematurely, the Bush administration has already begun drawing down the number of U.S. troops stationed in Iraq. 6. Superior body armor would have prevented 80 percent of the combat fatalities in Iraq. That’s 1,400 lives. In response, the Pentagon reported that it was ordering emergency ceramic plates for its body armor: on January 20th! 7. In a similar fiasco, the Pentagon has threatened to revoke death benefits from soldiers who wear their own body armor. 8. Despite all rhetoric to the contrary, Iraq’s elections have been neither free nor fair. Candidates’ names were not released in a timely manner. Iraq did not have a robust media at the time of the elections. It cannot be said that Iraq’s elections have been democratic. 9. Bush implies he has ended state-sponsored rape and torture in Iraq. Several sources indicate otherwise. 10. Nearly half of Iraqis approve of violence against U.S. troops. With facts like these, who needs rhetoric? It’s obvious that Iraq is in the middle of a civil war, one in which we cannot and should not take a side. Here is our clear plan for Iraq: Step 1: Begin an immediate withdrawal of troops in Iraq. If half of the Iraqis approves of violence against U.S. troops, the other half has become dependent on them. An Iraqi democracy will never grow out of a foreign occupation, and the Iraqi government has already asked our troops to leave. Step 2: All U.S. troops will now have well-defined and well-planned missions, and will be redeployed when these are complete. Step 3: Immediately spend all reconstruction funds in Iraq as a gesture of goodwill toward the Iraqis. Much of the resentment from the Iraqi people comes from the money going to U.S. contractors and not local Iraqi communities. Step 4: End the construction of permanent military bases in Iraq. This will show to the Iraqis that we do not intend to have a permanent occupation. Step 5: Continue to provide humanitarian assistance by protecting non-governmental organizations (NGOs) through U.N. troops. Step 6: Work through the United Nations to reach an appropriate consensus with the international and Muslim communities on how to best help Iraq. Step 7: Create U.N. Resolutions allowing for peacekeepers in a well-defined peacekeeping mission whenever the Iraq civil war ends. What Tom Kovach can do in Congress: Congress can mandate that President Bush follow all of these steps. In addition to these, Tom Kovach will require regular progress reports from both the Pentagon and the President on these steps and will require concrete objectives in pursuit of each. In addition, Tom Kovach will limit Pentagon funding to military withdrawal plans, not continuing operations. He will also support rigorous audits of current and previous Pentagon funding, which has been squandered and misappropriated. Tom Kovach knows from experience that some of the worst government waste comes from the military, where we spend 20% of the national budget. He will fight to put our military back on track, which is out of Iraq! Integrity in Government We know what you’re thinking about the title: “Boy, isn’t that a joke!” But how tragic it is that we have become so cynical to have given up on the idea of a decent system! Believe it or not, there was a time when the House Ethics Committee met and investigated members of Congress. There was a time without an informal truce of one minority party to not investigate members of the majority party for fear of retribution with a deluge of spurious “counter-investigations.” There was a time when wealthy groups did not have our elected leaders by the ears. And there was a time when elected officials paid the price for not consistently telling the truth to the people he or she represented! We need a change! We, the people, demand leaders who scold those with purely their self-interest at heart. We must have candidates who are candid! We insist it takes more than savvy media skills and a big campaign bank account to truly lead America. We need those at the top to be for the people, the whole people, and nothing but the people. Tom Kovach is accountable to you, not your campaign donation. He will tell you the truth, even when that means admitting mistakes. He will hold the integrity of the system above his political interests. He will be available to everyone he represents, not just those who have donated to, volunteered for, or spread the word about his campaign. Elected officials are elected to represent, and this is what Tom Kovach will do, even and especially if he is honored enough to take the title of “Congressman.” National Security The reason this page is separate from the Iraq page is that our presence in Iraq is doing nothing to enhance our national security. This bears repeating: our presence in Iraq is not doing one thing to enhance our national security. Tom has one immediate and highly pressing goal for national security that the Republicans have apparently forgotten in the last five years: eliminate Osama bin Laden. That we have gone 5 years without eliminating a murderer of 3,000 American civilians is beyond a disgrace: it is morally wrong, and shows how Republicans like Tim Murphy have lost total track of American values and good American sense! Tom believes in more effectively leveraging economic and trading power, rebuilding our diplomatic ties in Europe and other democracies to face national security threats. The number one national security goal that Bush and Kerry agreed on in the 2004 presidential debates was securing of the loose nuclear fuel in the world. Unlike the Republicans in Congress, Tom will actually adequately fund this program. Strengthening American Democracy Also called, "Restoring American Democracy" Tom Kovach is running as a Democrat, and as such he believes in strengthening our democracy. It’s an oversimplification to say that you either have democracy or you don’t. The truth is, democracy needs several things to function effectively: -Sufficient government transparency and a diverse and active news media. -Open access to campaigns for people who wish to run for public office, regardless of how much money they can raise. This includes public funding for campaigns. -Public faith that its elections are being held in a free and fair manner. -The public’s faith that citizens’ interests are first and foremost in the government’s mind, not financial interests. Public funding for public campaigns. Also called, "Permanent Campaign Funding Reform" Tom Kovach supports public funding for public campaigns: it’s an investment in keeping special interests out of our government, which will pay for itself hundreds of times over in reduced corruption of our leaders at all levels of government. In addition, this will enable the most qualified people to run for office, not just people with connections to money for public campaigns. Imagine how well government would run when the people who are now turned off by back-scratching politics had an equal shot at running a good campaign! You hear about wasteful government projects, and behind most of them, the politician is returning a political favor. With publicly funded campaigns, these projects and sweetheart deals would end, the work would be done more efficiently, and almost all of the money saved would come back to you. For more information, we suggest ''Clean Elections PA. Media diversity and media access. Also called, Media Reform It’s no secret that the media industry has been quietly pushing for media consolidation, with the Republican-controlled government doing whatever it can to help. Ever since Reagan ended the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, truly balanced coverage of real issues has become exceedingly rare. It’s time to re-create a public media that serves the public interest. Here’s what Tom Kovach’s Congressional legislation will do: 1. Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. 2. Force the FCC to fine any media company’s violation of market share laws. 3. Strengthen rules against advertising for products that the media company owns (for example, GE would not be able to advertise on NBC, or advertise against a competitor’s product). Programming commercials would be exempted. 4. Create public standards for news organizations (we don’t need any more Jeff Gannons). 5. Prohibit product placement in television and radio programming. 6. End government propaganda such as video news releases and government-paid columnists. 7. Increase the public-interest access shows, such as cable access and small-scale radio licenses. Ethics Reform Let’s face it: Republicans in Congress are infested with a culture of corruption. Crooked Republican Jack Abramoff directed funds to resigning Congressman and former Republican Majority Leader Tom Delay, who, with former Rep. and the now-convicted Duke Cunningham have resigned in disgrace, Congressman Bob Ney is under federal prosecutorial scrutiny, and yet, Congressional Republicans voted in Reps. Roy Blunt and John Boehner as Delay’s interim and permanent successors, both of whom have their own connections to Abramoff. The list of scandals in this Republican Congress are too numerous to mention. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington have good information to help you scratch the surfaces of them. It’s clear that we need a change: the corrupt Republicans in power do not need another footsoldier in the House of Representatives. Here’s what Tom Kovach will do to clean up Congress: 1. Ban the use of campaign contributions for legal defense funds. If you are caught with your hand in the cookie jar, your (former) political supporters should not have to foot your legal bills. 2. Prohibit anyone who has ever worked in the federal government from being paid to lobby the federal government. 3. Banning the use of political influence in the hiring, promotion, or firing of political lobbyists, as has been done in the K Street Project. 4. End the political truce on ethics investigations. If anyone on the ethics committee wants an investigation, there should be an investigation. This is a fair move that will keep both Democrats and Republicans in line. Voting Rights Tom Kovach wants to reform the Help America Vote Act, to require that paper ballots are generated by any electronic voting machine. Diebold (whose CEO recently resigned amid controversy) and Sequoia have not proven that their machines are flawless, and requiring that their machines create paper ballots, instead of electronic ones, is the only way to ensure that voting is fair and accurate. Tom also would support the use of optical scanners. In addition, Tom wants to permanently re-authorize all sections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That past Congresses haven’t done so in 40 years is shameful: Tom will work make voting rights a permanent part of our democracy. Social Issues Civil Rights Tom will fight for equal civil rights for all. He has been a proud member of the NAACP. Every adult American deserves the same rights as their peers. No one is special, and no one deserves "special rights," but the concensus among racial and lifestyle minorities is not now, and has never been, for fighting for anything other than equal rights at home, in the workplace, and in the world. Protection against discrimination, the permanent renewal of the Voting Rights Act, and reforming the Help America Vote Act (for, among other things, paper trails on all national voting machines) are at the top of Tom's long agenda for civil rights. Reproductive Freedom The issue of what a woman does with her pregnancy intersects many places in today’s society. As we have come to understand how we come into being, we also understand that pregnancy has been, and always will be, woman’s experience. Not only are her emotions involved in a way that is so unique to her, each woman’s situation is different. Some have been victimized in those ways and at those ages our society rarely talks about, such as rape, and the sexual abuse of young girls (tragically, sometimes even within a family). No one of character, regardless of their political persuasion, likes when such tragedies occur. In the same way, no one of character, regardless of their political persuasion, “likes abortion.” People who make such claims speak untruthfully and irresponsibly: this is a false choice. In reality, the decision to end one’s pregnancy is a difficult and emotional one, and depends a great deal on the circumstances of the people involved. At best, this decision should be one that is made by the woman and her family. Talking this over with people she trusts most, and those who lend her moral support, will help her determine which of her options fits her life situation. The government cannot be a substitute for her family; it cannot sit at her kitchen table and tell her how to handle her pregnancy. Moreover, anyone who considers this issue understands that sometimes, whether because of abuse, death in the family, or other reason, the woman will have to make this decision alone. Again, no one in the government has walked in a mile her shoes, and government is not the agent to tell her which decision is right for her. Tom Kovach agrees with former President Clinton on this issue: keep it “safe, legal, and rare.” After much emotional debate, our society has reached this fair consensus, Tom Kovach supports it. In Congress, Tom Kovach will bring such thoughtfulness and open-mindedness to this and every issue of reproductive wellness. The best government strategy to actually reduce abortion is to provide adequate funding for contraception and contraceptive education to sexually active people. This is a view that is upfront about human nature and pregnancy, something for which America is long overdue. Gun Laws Tom Kovach is building this campaign around trust, but trust is something to be earned, not taken for granted. Not surprisingly, it’s hard to cut through disinformation about party affiliation and promises, but we ask that you give us a chance to do so, on this and every issue, no matter what you think of, or have been told about, party politics. Gun laws make up an especially complicated issue, one that intersects life, freedom, and lifestyle in concrete ways. And when it comes to guns, a lot more trust needs to be earned. Tom understands that everyone wants to feel safe; many citizens also have hobbies that they practice responsibly, and don’t want to give up: nor should they. Strengthening the second amendment Tom has a simple philosophy when it comes to guns and gun laws. First, if you own a gun, rest assured that he doesn’t want to take away your right to own a firearm. In eight years with President Clinton, Democrats did not take away your guns. Tom won't either. He doesn’t hunt, but he understands that it’s some people’s hobby and passion, and like most things doesn’t want government getting involved where it’s not needed. Responsible gun owners are just that: responsible, and as such should be treated with all the decency and respect of every American citizen. Additionally, Tom wants military-level weapons to remain right there: in the military. Assault rifles should be kept off the streets, so our law enforcement officers can remain safe and effective. Fact-based gun policy A lot has been said about gun crimes in America, but one fact hasn’t changed: most gun crimes are done with legally purchased guns, not stolen weapons. People who palm off their guns to criminals are not being held accountable! These secondhand killers need to be pursued and punished as fully as the perpetrators themselves. Tom Kovach will follow through on the promise that Republicans have broken, and will triple funding of the enforcement of existing gun laws. National Security We also want to put a reasonable limit on gun exports. Too many of our weapons are being used in overseas civil wars and genocides, and too many of our weapons can now be used by overseas terrorist groups. Al Qaida doesn’t need any more of our help! With sensible approaches like these, Tom Kovach will help make America will become even safer than it has been. To make it happen, we ask for your help and your vote. On Values A lot of times, we hear the word "values" talked about in political discourse, and we hear that Washington, and the Democratic Party in particular, disparaged because of their out-of-touch values. Most often this centers around social issues of gay relationships, abortion, and the like. Real Moral Values It's easy to forget that all the Scriptures of the major religions admonish us to help the poor. Consider the following quote that is repeated in three of the Gospels: '"Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" '"Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments." '"Which ones?" the man inquired. Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'" '"All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?" Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." 'When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. 'Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."' Here are two quotes from Deuteronomy: "You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your brother owes you. However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, if only you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today." (15:3-5) Consider also Deuteronomy 24:14-15: "Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns. Pay him his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and is counting on it. Otherwise he may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin." Islam and Buddhism also both direct people to give aid to the poor. The Facts Which party is more concerned with helping the poor? Consider that the poverty rate has increased under every year that Bush, aided in no small part by the Republican Congress. If you think it's just a random fluctuation in the economy, consider this article, this article, this article, and this. We ask you to reconsider what you might have heard about Democrats, consider the source, and to trust Tom Kovach as a candidate who will stand up for real moral values. Links * Kovach Blog * Chad Kluko beat Thomas Kovach in 2006 Dem primary and then faces Tim Murphy in the general election. * VIPs Kovach Kovach